Festival Opening Party

Join festival organisers, sponsors and partners at the Slipway in Lakes Entrance for a public celebration to mark the official opening of the 2024 East Gippsland Winter Festival.

Be mesmerised by the unique sounds of Sasha and Rolly on arrival before a special Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony at 5:00pm. This will be followed by speeches and the official opening. Formalities will wrap up at around 5:30pm and then the Nowa Nowa Men’s Choir will get the good times rolling with a pop-up performance on the deck.

Special guests The Grubby Urchins will be performing a shoreside sea-shanty set before returning with their newly formed community choir! (They are running a FREE sea shanty singing workshop at the Slipway the night before, Thurs 20 June at 5pm – all welcome). Audience participation is encouraged!

DJ Bumpsonator will then take the party to the next level with some old school party tunes to get you busting some moves – a great way to keep warm. There’ll also be a few fire pits too to gather around and chat with friends old and new. Keep an eye out for a few characters lurking about, plus some lanterns and projections that will provide a little glimpse of what’s to come during the month-long festival.

The Slipway Shacks (Gippsland Jersey, Sailors Grave Brewing, The Minotaur and FLOAT) will have food, beverages and groovy wares available to purchase throughout the night including EGWF Hoodies in the FLOAT Shop, plus a couple of pop-up food stalls including Albert & Co and The Local wood-fired pizzas!

We hope you’ll join us to help kick the festival off with a bang!